Japanese government website hit by cyber attack; Pro-Russia group claims role

The Japanese government’s web portal, e-Gov, was hit by a cyberattack and became inaccessible on Tuesday, the Cybersecurity Response Center said, with a pro-Russian hacking group appearing to have claimed responsibility for the incident.

The National Center of Incident Readiness and Strategy for Cybersecurity said the site was the victim of a so-called DDoS attack, which overwhelms a network of hackers sending deluges of data from multiple sources over a short period of time. It became inaccessible from about 4:30 p.m. and remained disrupted into the night.